Dr. Henry Pym

Pym had made it back to the Avengers Academy after dark, and for once the compound seemed to be in a state of quiet, much to his own gratitude. William had fallen asleep during the car ride back, and the disturbance would have more than likely caused the child to become fussy. After placing him in his cradle, he wandered the compound for some time, thinking about all of the events that had occurred since founding this place, and all its high and low points.

He remembered opening the doors for the children, the lie he'd constructed in the hopes that they'd overcome whatever plans Osborn had crafted in order to make them his little soldiers. Veil, a girl looking for validation in all the wrong places. Unsure of herself to the highest degrees and aware that she was slowly dying, but still kept a smile on for everyone. Finesse, the young girl who seemed to understand nearly everything about the world except herself and the motives of other people. Reptil, the moralistic overachiever of the bunch, always eager to please those around him. Striker, who'd seemed to only work with everyone else for the fame. Hazmat, who would probably never be able to take off the environmental suit that had become her world, and her resentment of it came out in most of her actions. Mettle, the giant brute with the face of a demon and the heart of gold. Every one of them could have become toys for someone with cruel intentions, or could destroy anyone who disagreed with them.

But they didn't. Henry suspected that they'd learned why they were chosen for the program, but they overcame their lot despite the information they'd held. Perhaps even because of it.

Over time the care he'd given them became just more than that of a man worried for troubled teens. He got to know each student. Learned their reasons for staying and why they wanted to leave if it ever came to that. He became proud for their accomplishments, and not because he'd had a hand in steering them toward them. No, he felt proud because they felt proud. They'd learned to work amongst each other, even if at times it would put them at odds with the faculty.

Even more, he learned personal things about them. That Mettle's biggest wish was to just be able to surf again. Veil's nearly an adult, but her room's still pink and full of unicorns. That Hazmat rails against stereotypes. He remembers each time they're happy, or when he's had to comfort them when they were sad or angry.


It was here when he finally went to sleep that night at the Academy, that he finally realized that this place, these children, had changed him just as much as he hoped he changed them, for the better. His family was here, and even if they would separate for some time, they'd eventually all come home. Himself included.

Hank Pym is troubled, yes. The man's a tangled mess of inferiority complexes and self-sabotage that has nearly destroyed Hank's scientific, personal, and heroic life on more occasions that I care to remember. He created Ultron, his Skrull impostor had a hand in creating the evil cyborg Thor, and Pym played a hand in more than a few moments of moral or outright stupidity, up to and including the incident where he hit his wife. (Which, by the way, was not the intent of the writer at the time.)

However, even though he is my favorite Avenger, I am not Hank Pym, and though this is all part of Pym's past that I make reference to if it comes up, I am not that character. I know I said that twice now, but I really didn't appreciate a comment I received from an anonymous ass equating my desire to play him as me wanting to be him.

If you actually tried studying this character, the fact that he continues to try and better himself, even when he falls to his lowest points, is what I find interesting about him. He's not your average heroic personality. He's deeply flawed and knows it, but still tries more often than not to work on this. His inventions are amongst and surpass the greatest scientific minds in his universe, but people can't move beyond his flaws. It's something he can't move past. He tries. He fails. But he gets back up and tries again with his lesson learned. People spit on him fairly often in comics, but he tries to brush it off, but the man is too sensitive. He hurts, but tries to put on a good face for those around him. He tries to show people that he's working on his shortcomings, but the shit keeps being piled on him until it's too much for him to bear. And when he finally breaks? All he gets is a "no surprise there" and the cold shoulder from people he thought he could depend on.

The only person who wasn't like that, really, was his ex-wife, someone he was trying to rekindle a relationship with when he was abducted by the Skrulls. When he finally escaped with the other hostages, his wife had died, and he was left with nothing but with the knowledge that he'd never gotten to fix the mistake that ended the relationship with the love of his life, more hatred from people he counted as friends with no explanation why they were acting like this to him, and the knowledge that his face was the spokesmen for one of the most morally damaging coups in history.

Since then he's made a turnaround, becoming considered the greatest scientific mind on Earth by the being comprised of all matter in the universe, leader of the most trusted group of Avengers after the events of the Secret Invasion, and getting the chance to help kids who may have become criminals otherwise by opening a school for them.

My reason for playing Hank is that he's perhaps the most tragic character in the Marvel Universe, but has the biggest heart and most open mind of many heroes I've read about despite his slips and falls. He's an interesting character study and versatile character that you rarely get from a medium such as this.